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Berberis lecomtei Schneid.

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Berberis lecomtei' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/berberis/berberis-lecomtei/). Accessed 2024-10-11.

Synonyms

  • B. thunbergii var. glabra Franch.

Other taxa in genus

Glossary

apex
(pl. apices) Tip. apical At the apex.
entire
With an unbroken margin.
glabrous
Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
lanceolate
Lance-shaped; broadest in middle tapering to point.
lustrous
Smooth and shiny.
oblanceolate
Inversely lanceolate; broadest towards apex.
raceme
Unbranched inflorescence with flowers produced laterally usually with a pedicel. racemose In form of raceme.
simple
(of a leaf) Unlobed or undivided.
style
Generally an elongated structure arising from the ovary bearing the stigma at its tip.
umbel
Inflorescence in which pedicels all arise from same point on peduncle. May be flat-topped (as in e.g. Umbelliferae) to spherical (as in e.g. Araliaceae). umbellate In form of umbel.

References

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Berberis lecomtei' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/berberis/berberis-lecomtei/). Accessed 2024-10-11.

A densely branched deciduous shrub to about 6 ft high with glabrous shoots, red when young, later grey. Spines thin, about 1⁄2 in. long, simple or three-parted. Leaves entire, oblanceolate, obovate, or lanceolate, 1⁄2 to 11⁄2 in. long, blunt at the apex, tapering at the base into a very short stalk, dull grey-green above, greyish beneath. Flowers clustered, or in a short-stalked umbel or condensed raceme. Berries deep lustrous red, oblong to pear-shaped, about 2⁄5 in. long, without a style.

Native of China in Yunnan and S.W. Szechwan; discovered by the French missionary Delavay, and an old plant at Kew was probably raised from seed sent by him to France about 1885. It was later collected by Forrest and is in cultivation from his seed also. It closely resembles B. thunbergii.

B stearnii Ahrendt

This species differs from B. lecomtei in its stylose fruit and from B. thibetica in the duller colouring of the fruit and the scarcely veined leaves. Dr Ahrendt remarks that it is decorative in spring, when the flower-buds are red and the young growth bright green, mottled with red. In cultivation from F. 29042.

B thibetica Schneid

This species is of little garden merit. It was introduced to Kew in 1903 by Maurice de Vilmorin, from seed collected by the French missionary Soulié on the borders of Yunnan and Tibet. It is related to the preceding, but the berries are bright red, larger, and bear a style; the leaves are prominently net-veined.

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